Officials of La Pointe Iron Co., one of the owners of the property that Gogebic Taconite unsuccessfully sought to develop as a massive open pit mine, met with local representatives in Hurley to discuss reviving mining plans.

Green Bay — No player in the National Football League draft this year elicits quite the depth of positive reaction that Chris Borland does.

There's a lovefest going on out there in those dim places where scouts while away their workdays. A slew of personnel guys have developed a mass man crush for the squatty middle linebacker from the University of Wisconsin.

Here's a sampling of what I heard about Borland in the last month:

"Gosh, I love that kid."

"Oh, man, I love that kid."

"Love him. Love him. Love him."

"He's a guy I love."

"I love him. Love him."

"I love Chris Borland."

Badgers fans loved Borland for five years. They saw No. 44 amass 410 tackles (50 for loss) in 52 games and make an astonishing 27 turnover-producing plays, including a Big Ten-record 15 forced fumbles.

"All he does, you turn on the film and he's in on everything," a veteran personnel director for an AFC team said. "He's just a good football player."

Then Borland and more than 300 players showed up at the combine in February to be measured, timed and examined.

What does the 247-pound Borland, the second-shortest linebacker in attendance at 5 feet 11½, have in common with Cairo Santos, Tulane's 5-8, 161-pound kicker?

Santos' 28½-inch arms were the only ones at the event shorter than Borland's 29¼ inchers.

Borland's time of 4.83 seconds in the 40-yard dash was awful.

Doctors for one team concluded that a screw in Borland's twice-surgically repaired left shoulder had begun to slide into the joint. Their team removed Borland from consideration, and other teams have expressed varying level of concern with the shoulder.

The naysayers are having their say, too.

"Look, I like him," one personnel man said. "It's hard not to respect what he's given Wisconsin, but we all know the National Football League. And we all know you've got to play in space and you better have some length in order to tackle the big (expletive) that are running around.

"Hey, they say Zach Thomas did it. If you remember, when Zach Thomas played it was I formation and the game was played between the tackles. Now it's spread offense and no-huddle.

"When Chris Spielman played it was three yards and a cloud of dust. Now you look at what Chip Kelly's doing. This is a passing league, and it's only getting worse."

The bottom line in a few draft rooms: Borland is a two-down player unfit to carry tight ends down the seam and a step slow to the sideline.

"He may be a dinosaur at the end of the day," said another AFC decision-maker.

Thomas (5-10½, 233, 4.81) went in the fifth round to Miami in 1996. He played every snap and made seven Pro Bowls in a 13-year career.

Spielman (6-0½, 234, 4.98), a second-round pick (No. 29) by Detroit in 1988, played a dozen seasons and went to four Pro Bowls.

Before the '88 draft, one Ron Wolf, the chief scout for the Raiders, spoke of Spielman. His words could have been said about Borland a quarter century later.

"It's the age-old thing," said Wolf. "The guy is an exceptional football player, but the numbers don't match up, so you don't know what to do.

"He wanted to play big-time college football (at Ohio State) and he did that. He's on a mission now to play in this league, and I'm sure he will."

Teams, however, regard Thomas and Spielman as outliers. In the last eight years, 15 inside linebackers under 6-0 have been drafted, including eight in the first three rounds.

By far the best of the so-called pygmy linebackers has been Titan-Lion Stephen Tulloch. The remainder of the list is littered by busts.

"How's he going to tackle people in our league," said an NFC personnel chief. "Like the Adrian Petersons, the bigger guys that run downhill and have long arms to stiff-arm?

"Love the kid, love his makeup...but this is another league. We put 340-pound guards on linebackers. You don't have 300-pounders that are 6-1, 6-2 on him. I think he's going to struggle."

"He's probably my most favorite player to watch this year. I'd take him in the first round."

A total of 23 scouts, the vast majority with national responsibilities, were asked which round they would feel comfortable selecting Borland. Nearly 80% placed him in the first three rounds.

In all, three scouts put him in the first round, eight in the second round, seven in the third round, one in the fourth round and three in the fifth round. A scout from the team that flunked Borland had rated him in the second round.

"He appears to be somewhat of an overachiever but really isn't," said Thomas Dimitroff, the Atlanta Falcons' general manager. "I think he can be a good football player in this league despite the fact his numbers maybe aren't as appealing as teams might like."

In the Journal Sentinel polls at linebacker, 11 scouts from 3-4 teams and eight from 4-3 teams were asked scheme-specific questions on the five best outside and inside players to fit their defenses. The only proviso was that a player couldn't be named in each linebacker poll or in the defensive polls coming Tuesday.

***

THE SKINNY

UNSUNG HERO

Derrell Johnson, OLB, East Carolina: Reminded one scout of James Harrison, the remarkably strong former Steelers all-pro. Johnson (6-1½, 257, 4.74) registered 19 sacks as a three-year starter playing both up and down. Harrison, a free agent from Kent State, was cut several times before he found himself.

SCOUTS' NIGHTMARE

Howard Jones, OLB, Shepherd: Amassed 35 sacks in four seasons at the Division II level. Incredibly athletic player with a 40½-inch vertical jump and 4.55 40. Should have been even more dominant. Held back by marginal instincts and intelligence.

PACKERS' PICK TO REMEMBER

Brian Williams, LB, Southern California: Drafted in the third round in 1995. Integral member of two Super Bowl teams at weak-side LB. Some within the organization regarded him as the club's finest defensive player when he suffered a torn patellar tendon in Game 7 of 1999. He came back to start three games in 2000, developed an infection in the knee and went on injured reserve. After being a salary-cap cut in February 2001, he went on to play nine games with New Orleans and Detroit in 2001-'02.

QUOTE TO NOTE

NFL personnel man: "I hate when a linebacker gets lazy. 'OK, so I'm not going to make that play. It's about 10 yards downfield. I'm just going to coast right now.' That (expletive) me off. Just play all-out, for crying out loud."

About Bob McGinn

Bob McGinn is a beat writer and columnist covering the Green Bay Packers. A six-time Wisconsin state sportswriter of the year, he won the Dick McCann Memorial Award in 2011 for long and distinguished reporting on pro football.